Phoenix Rising
by AngelsSamurai
Summary: When you're summoned by the call of destiny, you can't refuse it no matter who you are. For there lies the true meaning of "fate". Hope springs eternal. OC. UPDATED - Chapter 2. R&R.
1. Sleepover

**Phoenix Rising**

_Chapter 1: Sleepover_

(Writer: Teki-chan)

Disclaimer: We do not own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing, and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Bandai, respectively. This fanfiction was created for the amusment of the writers, and we do not make any profit off of it, no matter how poor and desperate we are.

And a side comment by Teki-chan: Good lord, this is oooold. I'd rewrite it if I weren't so busy/lazy.

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A red head lay sprawled across the floor, carefully drawing in a rather large sketchpad. Every once and awhile she had to flip her mid back length hair over her shoulder so that she could see her latest drawing take shape. She was dressed however to go to sleep any time despite the intense concentration on what she was working on. 

Black pajamas reached down to her wrists, where white laced cuffs had been bent backwards against its grain, most likely to keep it out of the artist's way. Down the front were white ribbons sewed down to create a ruffled appearance, and lace then appeared out from underneath these ribbons. The lace continued on around the hem of the shirt, and echoed around the hem of the wrists and of the ankles of the pants. Most of the time, when such a style was tried, the thing had always ended up stiff and itchy, but this time, they had gotten it right. The pajamas felt incredibly light, but were under no threat of letting the wearer freeze to death, of feel as if she had nothing on. They covered not only anything that shouldn't be seen unless you were with someone that you were quite intimate with, but nearly everything else that wasn't hands, feet, or head. This olden style of pajamas had more then once gotten a few well chosen words out of a certain friend of hers. Of course, her friend had always gotten a few well chosen words from her as well.

With a timing that was unmistakably Josefina's, the girl swept back into the room in a style vaguely reminiscent of Spanish royalty. The affect was rather destroyed though by the plate of sandwiches she was carrying, and the current clothing she was wearing. She too looked ready to go to sleep, though her choice of sleeping clothing was not any where near as formal, proper, but was much more 'preppy'. She wore a nightgown that was truly a red over sized shirt made to be so long as to drape all the way to a bit below the knees. The sleeves were completely black, and were the ever annoying three-quarter length, and looked connected together by the black hem around the neckline. Written across the front of the nightgown in a script which belonged to the Old English family were the words, 'The princess is sleeping'. The phrase was rather suiting, not for any actual blood running in the girl's veins, but more for the attitude that it made anyone think of when they read it.

"What are you doing Kia?" The question was shot off and quickly followed by Josefina laying claim to the first sandwich there.

The red head looked up at the Hispanic 'princess' with a look that said something along the lines of 'what the heck do you think'. Kia was not exactly one to feel alright with repeating the obvious, or at least, what she felt was obvious, "I'm drawing."

A swallow and then, "What are you drawing?"

"A rabbit."

Josefina leveled a look at her friend, not at all believing that someone with so much artistic talent would waste her time drawing a rabbit of all things. Then again, she had never really understood why artists were always trying to make much of anything, trying to copy something point for point. So there this random person had seen the stars over some weird town, that didn't mean that they had to go and paint a warped version of reality to show it. That was another thing, while she didn't get why artists spent so much time drawing any one thing, she couldn't understand why an artist would draw it badly. Not even badly because they couldn't draw properly, but intentionally, as if making the picture of something no one was going to see abstract was going to do any good. If doing some form of good was actually what they had been trying to do. And if they weren't trying to do good, well, Josefina didn't want to know what it was about then. She was quite aware that she didn't understand artists, and quite frankly, she was okay with that.

"Why are you drawing a rabbit?"

Kia had to look back up from her sketch pad again to meet Josefina's doubting gaze before replying, "I want to be able to draw all sorts of things. I don't want to only be able to draw a few things well. I want to draw everything."

Josefina sighed before starting to continue eating her sandwich, it was easier then trying to figure out her red headed friend. _A rabbit? A rabbit. Is she honestly spending her time drawing a rabbit? One of those annoying rodents that the gardener complains about eating our plants? If she spent half as much time on getting a boyfriend as she did filling up bound packs of paper with pretty little pictures, she could have top choice from the cream of the crop! Right after me of course._

That was yet another thing that separated the two girls when it come to their two thought processes. Josefina seemed endlessly caught in a cycle of getting a new boyfriend, trying them out for a week or two, dumping them, and then finding a new one. Kia had taken it up to call the poor fellows the 'flavor of the week' until Josefina gave her such a look that it left Kia off-balanced, and ready to regress back into a complete recluse again. But where Josefina was going through them like there was going to be no tomorrow, Kia remained extremely aloof and almost disdainful of the opposite gender. Never before had she taken on the idea of committing herself to a guy with any sort of seriousness, and showed no inclination of doing it anytime soon. When one would ask about the other's problems with the other gender, they would retreat behind a wall of self-knowledge, and tell the other that 'they had their reasons'. Some of which were more obvious then others.

"Why are you drawing a rabbit again?"

Kia gave an undignified snort, and gave Josefina one of her patented looks. For her, this counted as restating the obvious, "I told you, because I want to be good at drawing everything."

"You're already good at drawing everything! You're going to be the next Picasso or something."

Kia didn't reply immediately at that. How exactly could you? In one breath her friend had just given her semi-daily boost of confidence that Kia had the bad habit of needing and insulted her to no know degree. It was a disorienting, and confusing, the sort of thing that deserved, and received confused looks that clearly questioned what the person had said and had meant to say.

"Josefina, you do realize Picasso is, right?"

Josefina scowled, annoyed at have to answer the question that so readily brought to dispute her intelligence. It was one of the down parts of taking the out cast artist Kia in under her wing, she also ended up with a person that was ready to point out your mistakes. "Yes, he's the guy who painted really funky."

At Kia's prolonged staring, that asked without words why she had been compared to him in the first place without words, "It was the first name that I could think of alright? I mean, so sue me already!"

"Jo! You should pay more attention in classes then, because we just went over a whole slue of them in art."

Josefina's response bordered on the line of whining, "Aw, but Kia, you know I don't pay attention to the teacher in that class. However, that boy that got transferred in last week is so hot!"

Kia couldn't help but finally break eye contact to turn her face to the side and scowl. Josefina's emphatic giggles weren't helping at all either. Josefina and her boys. Josefina had never failed to amaze Kia with her infallible energy towards getting a guy, despite the fact that if Kia thought about it long enough she could swear that Josefina had dated them all.

"You know, he's probably more of your type. The arty type I mean. Probably has the same life goal as you," Josefina made a poorly hidden grimace, "to draw everything as good as it gets. And he's cute…"

Kia attempted to both to stifle the coming groan, and to Josefina a heavily exasperated look. Right next to Josefina's drive to get herself a new boyfriend, at least once a month, was the drive to get all of her friends hooked up with some random guy. Kia had always felt in some way that Josefina subconsciously, or consciously knew that she wasn't going to stay with a guy, so wanted to get someone close to her romantically involved just to see it happen. For the next best thing to being in a relationship like that is to be close enough to one that you are let in on all of the 'aww' moments. That is, if you could take the fact that you weren't in that relationship and thinks looked bleak for it ever happening to you. Somewhere deep within her being, Kia probably wished that she could be in one of those loving relationships that you find in trashy romance novels, but with a lot less of the lust. A relationship with chivalry. However, she had always managed to dismiss it to her hormones being over active again, and not something even worth her time of properly attending to. Besides, she had seen a relationship gone bad enough to leave her forever scarred, and seen the worst that the males of her species had to offer. It was enough to make her dare not even risk it.

"You really were working on a rabbit!"

Kia jerked to here and now, and was stunned and unhappy to see that her sketch book had been commandeered while she had been off on a thinking tangent. Josefina had obviously gotten bored waiting for Kia to come up with something to say to her, so had decided to find a way to amuse herself. Even now, with Kia sitting gaping at her, the Hispanic girl continued to flip through the pages in the sketch book, occasionally muttering this or that comment.

"Hey! These guys are cute! Who are they? Secret crushes?"

Kia felt the blood rush to her face, and could almost feel the blush spreading from the edge of one cheek, over her nose and onto the other cheek. While she could deal with Josefina's match making attempts with a semblance to dignity, she couldn't handle being accused of liking a guy. It was either blush furiously, or shout out denials about how she couldn't like the so-and-so for such-and-such reasons. And she felt practically guilty of liking these supposedly existent guys because she had spent so many nights leaning over them as she slowly brought them to life through her pencils. She had even gone so far as to actually use her precious professional colored pencils to color further life into them.

"No, they are not secret crushes! They're figments of my imagination!"

"Incredibly cute figments of your imagination." Josefina decided against asking just what had inspired Kia of all people to hold the image of five guys in her head long enough to fully render them on paper. This way Kia might end up letting her stare at the picture longer. If only such cute guys existed! Too enthralled was she, when Kia too took the time to stare at her own picture as well, with a much more suppressed longing.

On the farthest left was the tallest of the boys, and easily fitted the 'tall, dark and handsome' stereotyping. Fully wrapped around him was the feeling of mysterious silence, and the need to pay attention to any one thing that he said. While he didn't look ready to smile, you could tell that if he spared that precious gift for you, you were to consider yourself extremely lucky. He wore a simple combo of white pants and a green turtle neck. The sort of thing that Kia had always imagined for getting close and personal just for those quiet moments where you just take in the others presence. The only thing that she could consider near imperfect for him was his hair, it was short, but almost all of it looked like it had been combed into this gigantic uni-bang. While Kia liked unique hairstyles, she didn't think it fair that the boy would hide so much of his face, even to the point that one of the eyes were hidden behind the light brown screen.

Second to the left was a boy who looked radically different from the first, as if he could take the laughter and life, and bottle it. At least, he looked like had his fair share of the drink of laughter, and had no plans to stop drinking. The wide grin plastered across his face made that clear enough. Chestnut brown hair was pulled back into a long braid that waved around, as if frozen in the act of echoing the exuberant actions of its owner. However, the clothing suggested that the boy should have been moving with a bit more reserve, with more of an air of serenity, not off the wall energy. They were almost a completely dower black, except for where a white under shirt peaked out at the neck line, and both sets of sleeves had been rolled back to behind his elbow. On the front of his black shirt were two yellow lions facing each other, and rearing up but firmly caged with the yellow outlines of shields, and separated by being on different sides of the shirt. It almost looked like something that she would expect a priest would wear while allowed to go about his own business. Almost…

On the far right was a boy that had some very obvious Chinese heritage, and Kia probably would have been rather predisposed to him because of it. If he hadn't had that oh-so-superior smirk gracing his well-sculpted face. The smirk was echoed and turned into a mark of tightly bound dignity by the ebony black ponytail that looked so painfully tight that it seemed to want to pull apart his scalp. His heritage shown clear again through his clothing that looked like an over size white pajama top, with large baggy sleeves and all over loose white pants. Kia couldn't imagine how the Chinese boy managed to pull of those sorts of clothing, and make them looked so fine! She would have guessed that might have been the source of the smug self-assurance, if the smirk didn't carry such a 'holier then thou' look. Lady killers never were like that, they always had a wide grin, a witty joke or comment ready to impress the ladies, and didn't dare try to look superior incase that lost the ladies. The braid boy was a much better example of someone who looked like he was out to look for some girl to woo.

In the middle was the most intense eyed person that she had ever seen, drawing or no. He glared out at the on looker from around his messy bangs, with Prussian blue eyes, with an almost hostile confidence in himself. The effect was only helped along by the fact that he was wearing a plain blue jeans, a nearly skin tight white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. If any of the boys there looked ready to prove all that Kia feared about the opposite gender, then he would be the one. From the stare, to the clothing, he screamed the stereotype 'tough guy', except that most tough guys didn't that sort of intense stares even if they were trained from the day they were born. They'd go a million years before even getting close to that sort of thing, at least in Kia's opinion. Why else would most of them to choose sunglasses to wear then? No, this boy had a talent for that sort of thing, pure and simple, and he knew it, and wasn't afraid to use it. Somehow though, Kia knew that he'd be more the type to grab you by the shoulder, throw you against the wall, and leave you cowering as he went on with whatever he planned to do. Unless you deserved a threat, and/or were in the way of solving his objectives. She couldn't tell what would happen to the poor soul standing in his way, but it was quite sure that she wouldn't want to be in their boots at all.

Finally, the one second to the right, the one that some how, Kia always ended up studying the last, no matter who else she started on. She also always seemed to end up studying him for the longest, no matter how much time she had put into looking at the picture over all. Perhaps it was because the way that he gently smiled seemed a complete obvious from those males she knew personally, the way he seemed like he wouldn't have hurt a fly if he had the choice. He seemed to represent just about everything that she hoped was out there, and did seem to have any of the traits she abhorred. No 'I am superior then you, just give me the chance to show you how low you are', no rough and unnerving silence, no 'don't you dare get in my way or else you won't like it', nothing like that. He looked so… soft. Caring. Polite. Gentle. Kia was absolutely sure that if he had been a real person, she would have become overly attached far too quickly, and just asking to get hurt. Thank the heavens that he really was just a colored on piece of paper. Besides, he must have had some sort of flaw, no one could be so perfect, but Kia couldn't find it just by looking at a picture she drew of him.

"Are you sure that these aren't a bunch of crushes that you haven't told me about?"

Kia turned, and her eyes met Josefina's dancing own, and realized the Hispanic girl had been watching her for the time that she had been spaced out and in dream land. Twice in the same night. Kia was not at all feeling very up to her own standards.

"No, they aren't any I know, or I have even seen in passing! They're simply figments of my imagination! They popped into my head, and begged to be set down into the paper."

"Uh-huh." Josefina demonstrated articulately just how much trust she put into that, before continuing to leaf through the sketchbook.

"I mean it Jo!" Before Josefina could repeat her last response, Kia lunged for her sketchbook, and managed to wrap her fingers around a couple of pages.

"Hey! I was looking at that!" Josefina fell backwards, trying to hold the sketchbook out as far as she could, to force Kia to let go.

However, as fate would have it, neither of the two girls would really win, but the sketch book most certainly would be on the loosing side. As the two girls tussled for possession over the sketch book, with shouts of 'its mine', 'let me see it', and many repeats of the other's name, the binding of the sketch book refused to take any more. With a ripping sound, Kia ended up flopping over Josefina, while Josefina herself, fell backwards, both having been thrown off by the sudden lack of balancing pulls. After a few moments of stunned silence, Kia peered at what laid death gripped in her hands, and slowly took in what they meant. She had managed to secure roughly five or six of the pages from the middle area of her sketchbook, leaving the rest in Josefina's hands.

Josephina was quick to the recovery, and had shoved Kia off of herself, and then sat cross-legged on her own bed, flipping through the sketchbook again. Obviously, if Kia had gone through such an effort to make sure that she wasn't going to look through the sketchbook, then there must be something very valuable to hide. Something that Kia knew would set Josefina into a fit of either giggles or teases, but either way, highly enjoyable to the raven haired princess. It didn't occur to her that the demand had been made in retaliation to the sheer embarrassment that Kia didn't feel like dealing with. All she had to do was get through all of the pictures of fuzzy animals, plants, landscapes, oddly dressed woman to get to the good looking guys.

Wait a sec, oddly dressed woman? Josefina skipped back a couple of pages, flipped around the sketchbook so it faced Kia and asked, "Kia, who is this chick in front of the whirly gig?"

The woman was oddly dressed, and it seemed to suit her perfectly well, considering her environment, accessories, and attitude about the whole thing. The clothing seemed like some strange warped version of a girl's school uniform from Japan, with shorter skirts, and a few more extra frills and bows added. Except, she looked a bit old to be wearing a schoolgirl's uniform, not that she didn't look absolutely great the way she was. She just created a very mysterious, silent, and knowledgeable air about her, that no high school student that Kia had known ever had. Heck, they didn't even half the knowledge that it would take for them to back up any sort of air that they knew anything at all. It was perfect for the setting that she had been placed into. Behind her and to the left was a swirling vortex, twisting space around it, so that it would take in anything through a chaos filled path to the center. It seemed like an uncontainable event, but it was surrounded and held in place by a large and intricate marble ring mounted upward from the mist-covered floors. In the woman's hand was a staff that while it looked a horribly effective weapon, looked oddly like a key as well. Her long green hair twisted and twirled majestically in an unseen breeze.

"She's another figment of my imagination, Josefina." Kia held out her hand for the sketch book, and the toned she used, coupled with the use of Josefina's full name left no room for a good way to tell Kia that she wasn't getting her sketch book back.

"Fine fine, here here. Whatever." Josefina tossed Kia her sketchbook back, and watched Kia placed the ripped out pages back into the book randomly. She caught sight of a page covered in another 'whirly gig' was slid in where she could recall the boy's picture was. However, she made no comment of it. It must simply have been the result of a day that Kia was simply too bored to draw anything else.

"I'm going to sleep now."

"That sounds like a good idea Josefina." And after tucking her sketchbook under her pillow, she did just that, drifting to the land of dreams following closely her friend.

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Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of any Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing characters in the preliminary chapter. Don't worry. They'll certainly be in the rest of the story.


	2. Into the Woods

**Phoenix Rising**

_Chapter 1: Into the Woods_

(Writer: Nashie-chan)

Disclaimer: We do not own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing, and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Bandai, respectively. This fanfiction was created for the amusment of the writers, and we do not make any profit off of it, no matter how poor and desperate we are.

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When Kia woke up, she heard birds.

It wasn't unusual to hear sparrows chirping cheerfully before the sun came up, and she was sure that it would have been perfectly normal. But something in her dream-shaken mind told her that something was not quite right. The part of her that was still asleep commanded the awakening part of her to forget about it and deal with it in the morning.

Morning…morning.

Kia opened her eyes.

And sat straight up in disbelief.

She looked around at her surroundings, her mouth agape in shock. For a moment, her stunned brain tried to reason with her, but she forcefully did not listen to it. _Let me have a few seconds of downright panic first before Jo wakes up_, she thought in a daze, climbing to her feet. Her friend, still sleeping a few feet next to her, shifted in the throes of the last strands of a dream. _Besides, she'll probably react worse…_

Kia sat back down, lotus position, and folded her hands in her lap. Something was telling her that there was something hugely wrong about this, other than the obvious, and she wasn't quite sure how she knew that. However it was turning out, she wasn't too happy with her current situation, and she felt a bit of blank nostalgia rise up within her stomach.

The birds had just begun to cease their chirping when Josefina let out a low mumble in her sleep, and turned over onto her stomach. "Kia…didja open th'window or sumhin…" Her words were slurred, but at least she wasn't mumbling in Spanish, as she had a habit of doing whenever she woke up from a deep sleep. Kia remained mute, hoping that her silence would provoke her friend into waking up. She just sat patiently, a growing sense of worry building within her, and she shivered.

Josefina finally let out a groan of protest, and opened her eyes blearily to glare at Kia, who let herself smile faintly. If she knew Josefina as well as she thought, it would only take a few moments for her to realize something was not quite right. Josefina, in turn, sat up, still obviously in the state between dreaming and waking, and she frowned uncertainly at Kia. "What are you smiling at?"

"Jo, what are you sleeping on?"

"My bed…?" The girl sounded a bit confused, looking down to wonder why in the world her friend would ask her such a mundane question. Her mind didn't quite register the fact that instead of blankets and a mattress beneath her, there was lush, verdant grass sprouting from the ground. She stared at it for a moment before looking around at her surroundings. Huge red trees that she had only seen at Yellowstone, a canopy of blue-green leaves overhead, a gray-blue sky, pale sunlight creating patches of warmth on the grass…

Kia watched as Josefina took one final assessment of the area, pinched herself, and then watched as the latina's eyes flew open in surprise and panic.

"We've been kidnapped!" Before Josefina could even begin to rant and go into full-fledged Josefina-panic, Kia held up a hand to stop the inevitable rant. Times like this did not call for panic.

"Kidnapped, Jo?" she said reasonably, trying to keep doubt from trickling into her voice. "Think about it – we aren't exactly rich or have political connections in any way." It was faulty reasoning – from statistics, Kia knew that anyone could be kidnapped, no matter who their parents were or how much money they had. But hopefully, Josefina hadn't read those statistics, and would simply put trust in her friend's words.

But it didn't see that Josefina had ever heard her. Her pretty face crumpled in fright. "Oh, god…kidnapped…oh, my god…just like in the movies…" Kia felt something twist in her stomach, but she wasn't quite sure if it was because of pity or annoyance. Either way, she sighed, scooting over to her friend, and patting her on the shoulder, whispering comforting to words to her. This was all too familiar, whenever in the middle of the night, a child awoke her with a cry of fright from nightmares real and imaginary, and only the presence of a sister could sooth fears of the monsters that tormented that child's mind.

But Josefina didn't cry. No, Josefina never cried. She could throw the most delirious of tantrums and fits of panic, but she never cried. So after a few moments on consolation, she peered around at her surroundings again, eyes narrowing as she tried to solve the puzzle of why and how they had ended up in the middle of a forest somewhere.

It didn't take her long to reach a reasonable conclusion. "This doesn't look like California. Even those trees aren't big enough…" Kia blinked uncertainly at Josefina's abrupt change in attitude. It shouldn't have really surprised her, but given the circumstances…

"No. It doesn't."

"And we had an alarm system!" Josefina exclaimed, jumping to her feet so quickly, Kia nearly fell over. She glared up at her friend, who didn't seem to notice. "Why didn't Roberto come to our rescue?"

_Well, while she's ranting, at least she's calm_. Kia climbed to her feet as well, wiggling her bare toes uncomfortably in the grass. She was never one for nature, but at least the grass was lush enough and warm enough to be comfortable. She looked around the area with Josefina, and crossed her arms contemplatively. "And if we actually were kidnapped, how come there aren't people making sure we stay here?" She looked around. "Wouldn't it be a bit more wise if they kept us somewhere where there weren't so many escape exits…like, I don't know, an actual room? Or a building at least?"

Josefina nodded in agreement. "And where's the mafia car?" Her brow furrowed in frustration. "I can't believe we've been kidnapped by people who don't even know how to do it right! I mean, didn't they ever see _The Sopranos_?"

"Jo, it isn't always a mafia car…sometimes it's a van or some other unremarkable car." Kia tried not to sound exasperated. Leave it Josefina to reach some outlandish, improbable conclusion. She looked down at the grass, looking for some sort of ransom note or other clue as to where their location was, as Josefina looked heavenwards, craning her neck up to see if there were any snipers hiding in the trees.

After a few moments of the silence, Josefina quietly murmured, "We've been abducted."

Now that was something out of the blue. Kia stared at her as if she had just announced that was planning a coup d'etat of the French government. "What?" At that Josefina pointed towards the sky. After having not spotted any snipers or men in expensive black Gucci suits, she had noticed something very peculiar about the sky. Kia followed her finger, and peered up at the slate-blue sky with a confused frown on her face. Then she saw it.

The moon was green.

Not a bright neon green or a dark rosebush green. It was actually very pale, a timid, but its color was still very obviously different from the silver and peach moon Kia was used to seeing. And it was very large. Much too large, even if one took into account any atmospheric gases that could sometimes distorted the moon's true size. And the fact that it was so apparent in obvious daytime unsettled her.

"I'm no astrologer or anything, but I don't think the moon is supposed to be that color," Josefina muttered.

"Astronomer."

"Huh?"

"Astrologer is someone who uses the path of the stars and planets to foretell the future. An astronomer relies more on science than myth and magic." Josefina made a face at her, and Kia just blinked innocence. "Well, it's true." Josefina threw her hands up their air.

"Well how do explain the fact that we're obviously on a different planet! We've been abducted!"

Kia struggled not to roll her eyes. "And the aliens decided to just drop us off on a planet that happens to very similar to Earth? I don't think so…and I'm sure we would have remembered at least part of the abduction…"

"Then where are we?"

"I'd say…we're completely lost, without a single clue on where we are, or even how we got here." Josefina did not look amused at Kia's stating of the obvious, and Kia gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry. But maybe we should look for someone who might know where we are. Hopefully, they'll be friendly…"

"And not little green men."

"Are you still on that bit?"

They continued their friendly, if tense banter as they randomly picked a direction and started to walk in that direction. Kia hoped that whoever they ran into, if they ran into anybody would be reasonable and nice. The moon that loomed just above their heads seemed to be like a heavy burden on their shoulders, and it made Kia tense. Truth be told, as much as she tried to be calm for Josefina's sake, something about the entire situation made her wary. The green moon, the chirping of birds that were nowhere to be seen, the overall tension that the forest seemed to carry – it was almost too abnormal even for her.

Josefina glanced over at her friend, who had fallen into a thoughtful silence. The redhead was more accepting of these types of changes than she was, especially one as weird as this. _I swear, it's either the mafia or aliens…or aliens that are part of the mafia…or some secret government conspiracy! But I bet Kia wouldn't think so…weirder things have happened though…for someone who believes in magic, she sure can have no imagination sometimes…_

Lost in her own thoughts, Josefina didn't notice Kia halt all of a sudden, and she nearly collided into the girl's back. Before she could open her mouth to yell, Kia put two fingers up to her mouth to shush her. Josefina frowned at her, and was about to ask what Kia was doing, when she heard muffled voices talking a few dozen meters away. Her eyes widened. "The mafia?"

Kia suppressed her urge to hit Josefina's arm. "I don't know." She looked around, and then began heading in the direction of the voices, trying to be as quiet as possible. "Just in case, be quiet!" Josefina, brown eyes wide in surprised and a bit a fear, nodded, and began creeping after Kia.

As they began to get closer, the voices became more distinctive. Josefina glanced at Kia. "What language is that? Martian? Italian?"

"Keep it down. And I think it's English."

Josefina made a face. "What kind of Marian speaks English?"

"Will you decide whether or not their mafia or aliens, please?" She snuck behind a tall bush, hoping that they hadn't been spotted due to Josefina's mumbling. The bush, fortunately, did not have any thorns, and was place snugly around a tree. Both she and Josefina were small enough to wedge themselves in the tight space between the bush. Kia squirmed uncomfortably so as not to rattle the bush and gain any unwanted attention. Even as Josefina quietly mumbled her discomforts, Kia peered out between the bushes, hoping her hair wouldn't attract any unwanted attention.

Josefina shifted uncomfortably. "Can you see anything? Little green men in Gucci suits?" Her voice was so quiet it was almost inaudible.

Kia frowned, peering through the thick bushes. She was almost at a disadvantage because she couldn't move her head or body as freely as she wanted to because of the condensed space. "Five guys. No Gucci suits." Josefina squirmed next to her, and tried to look through the pushes as well, trying to ignore the uncomfortably strain she was placing on her neck and spine. She looked at the five guys in question, and she nearly squealed as the implications of what she was seeing sunk in.

"Oh, my god! Kia, those are your guys!" There was no doubt about it – the five guys standing a few dozen feet away were without a doubt Kia's "imaginary" boys from the picture early from the evening. Kia's mouth dropped slightly as she tried to get a better look at what Josefina was claiming. Her stomach flipped in her stomach as thoughts began racing through her head. What in the world would this possibly mean? Suppressed subconscious memories?

Josefina didn't seem to think so. In fact, she was grinning wildly as she stared at the five specimen of the opposite sex. Kia wondered how in the world Josefina managed to intrigue other guys when she already had a steady boyfriend. She briefly wondered who the lucky victim of the week was, when she realized that Josefina was preparing to stand up. Horrified, she grabbed her friend's wrist, slamming her back to the ground before she could be seen and wrapped her hand over her friend's mouth. "What are you doing? We don't know if they're friendly or not!"

Josefina wrestled, but to no avail. Neither of them noticed how much they were rustling the bush. They also didn't notice that one of the boys had turned a suspicious glare in their general direction. They were too busy silently arguing to notice him pull a black metallic object from his jacket.

They did notice the gunshot that penetrated the afternoon calm.

Kia yelped loudly, instinctively tumbling backwards into the tree, simultaneously trying to flatten herself on the ground. Her heart pounded against her chest as if it were trying to free itself from fleshly constraints, and Kia felt her mouth go dry as she noticed a bullet hole just inches from where her and Josefina's heads had been. _This can't be happening. Someone just SHOT at us?_ She spared a look over to where Josefina had doubled over, throwing her hands overhead. She heard her friend hysterically mutter something about the mafia, but the sound of blood rushing in Kia's ears prevented her from hearing exactly what the brunette was saying.

"Not reassuring," she thought, blankly wondering if maybe Josefina was right. But…the mafia? She shivered inside, and closed her eyes, trying to blank out how close death had been. "We could have died. We could have died…" That in itself was enough to keep her from focusing on the confusion occurring a few feet away.

"Exactly why did you do that? It could have been a squirrel."

"Squirrels don't yelp."

"They're also not much a threat to the perfect solider. Give me that." A pause. "Oi, you're mean."

"Don't aggravate him, Duo."

Kia felt an urgency to flee at that moment, and she yanked on the back of Josefina's shirt. The other girl lifted her head slightly, her face ashen from fear. Kia gestured for her to follow her away from the bush and to get as much distant between them and the crazed gunmen as fast as possible.

Josefina was just beginning to sit up when a few branches were moved from overhead. Kia swallowed a panicked cry, and froze, her hand frozen stiff on Josefina's shirt. The boy, who couldn't have been any older than sixteen, peered down at the two girls. In the reasonable part of her mind, Kia remembered him as the one with the exuberant smile, both on his face and his glowing indigo eyes. Even now, despite the seriousness in the situation, and the tension that rested in her shivering heart, Kia still felt as if he were laughing at them somehow.

"Well, they're not dead," the boy said casually, grinning down at the two petrified girls. "Scared silly, but not dead." Josefina raised her head slightly to stare at the guy who was making fun of their predicament, and shuddered once she saw him.

"We aren't famous…we don't have any money," she murmured through slightly chattering teeth. "I hate the mafia." The boy grinned at them, looking as if he were trying to burst into laughter at that very moment.

"Heero, I think you scared them."

"It's not every day we get shot at," Kia muttered in reply, feeling a bit more courageous at the young man's laidback, genuinely friendly attitude. She studied his face – he looked as if he wore his heart on his sleeve, just as she had drawn him two days ago. But still…could she really trust someone who was friends with someone who shot at them for no apparent reason?

"Don't worry," the guy suddenly said, with a wink that obviously said he was a heartbreaker. "I'm the nice one."

Josefina, after having heard this brief exchange, decided his proclamation was enough for her, and she bolted upwards. "I've heard about stories where they make teenagers into Mafia hitmen!" The boy's sudden incredulous, stupefied look nearly made Kia burst into laughter, but she knew she would be the object of two glares if she did so.

She was saved from doing so when she heard a voice call out from behind the boy: "Duo! Are they alright?" Kia blinked. Duo? What a strange name for a boy…

The young man turned his attention away from the girls and towards his friends, who Kia supposed were still waiting for an answer. He put his hand behind his head, and made a face. "I think we can rule out the idea that they know anything. They're positively clueless." Josefina yelled in protest, but was cut off when another familiar face appeared next to the smiling brown-haired boy. Kia felt as if her ears turned red, but quickly tried to smother that feeling. It was the blonde one, the one who she felt an attraction even when he was only a drawing.

"Duo, stop teasing them," he chastised in a quiet voice. He turned his attention from his friend, and towards the girls, giving them a small, embarrassed smile. "You can come out. We're not going to hurt you." Kia frowned, not entirely believing that yet.

"Then what was the gunshot for?"

"Some of us are just a little edgy," he murmured, glancing over his shoulder. Kia raised one eyebrow slightly, not quite understanding why in the world a teenager who hardly looked older than her would be carrying a gun. She shivered, recalling the drawing of the one cold-eyed young man, with the impassive, icy glare. Were they all like that, and she was just mistaken by her first views?

Josefina, however, didn't seem to have any qualms about trusting the boys now that she knew they weren't part of the mafia. She jumped to her feet, and walked around the bush, hands on her hips. Now that she was in control of her emotions again, she looked ready to take on the world despite the fact that she was barefoot and still in her pajamas. Kia slowly rose to her feet, a little bit more self-conscious over her black pajamas, even though they covered up more than flesh than Josefina's oversized T-shirt.

"Do you know where we are?" Kia asked as she moved away from the bush. She risked a quick peek to where the other three guys were standing, but none of them seemed to be paying any attention to them. She let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

"We're here," came the cheerful reply to Kia's question. She gave the young man with the braid – _Duo_, she reminded herself mentally – an exasperated look. That much was obvious.

"I don't think that's the answer they were looking for," the blonde said with an exasperated smile of his own. Kia nodded in agreement, as Josefina scowled at Duo. The young man didn't seemed a bit fazed by other three's reactions.

"Well, as long as we all know where we aren't. That's a start."

"You don't know where here is either?" asked Kia, as the implications of Duo's statement sunk in. The blonde shook his head.

"Unfortunately no." Kia looked thoughtful.

"That's not good." She paused. "Did you just wake up here, too?"

"Not really."

"Not really?"

Duo snorted. "Is there an echo? We just sort of…came here." He blinked uncertainly, and scratched his head. "The whole hocus-pocus stuff included. Which explains why Mr. Shoot-First-Ask-Later reacted like he did." He glanced over at the other three, more directly at the young man in the black jacket. Kia didn't follow his gaze, remembering the feelings evoked whenever she glanced at the cold young man who had nearly killed her or Josefina.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Josefina demanded. "I swear, this sounds like some governmental Roswell thing." Kia crossed her arms, and tapped her fingers against her elbows in a contemplative rhythm. She suddenly looked up at Josefina, a thoughtful, slightly worried look on her face.

"So you think that woman will show up too?" The blonde boy blinked.

"What woman?" Kia blushed, and gave an apologetic shrug.

"A woman with a really short skirt, long dark hair, and a weird staff." Kia noticed that the two boys went oddly quiet, sharing unnerved looks before glancing at their three companions. She wondered if they had seen her, or if they knew her. She shook her head. "It was a long shot. A very long shot."

"You saw her too?" That snapped Kia out of her thoughts, and she stared at the blonde in surprise.

"Not…exactly. So, you did see her…?" Duo sighed.

"Unfortunately, yeah. She was the one that did the little hocus pocus thing with that silver staff."

"And then there was a kinda swirly vortex thing?"

Duo and the blonde shared looks.

"It's nice to know that the pajama-clad girls know what they're talking about." The new voice startled both Josefina and Kia, and they spun around to face the condescending glare of the Chinese youth, the one Kia remembered with the arrogant, superior light in his black eyes.

The blonde gave him a frown. "Wufei…"

"Ah, he's just cranky," Duo teased. Kia rolled her eyes to the canopy of leaves overhead, and thought, _if I see that lop-eared rabbit…_

Josefina made a face, and looked over at Wufei, a dark look in her deep brown eyes. "Do you have any better ideas, Mr. Know-It-All?" The young man didn't ever spare her a look.

"Well, when it comes to talking to people who obviously don't know anything, I have lots of better ideas."

Josefina scowled. "Such as?"

"Not standing here and talking about it." Duo snorted, and gave the Asian youth a smirking look.

"Great idea. Let's just walk around pointlessly." He ignored Wufei's glare, and turned to Kia and Josefina, a smile on his face. "Well, are we off to follow Wuffle's idea?" Josefina sniggered as Wufei turned a furious glare to the back of Duo's head, but the cheerful young man ignored it. Kia managed to hide a smile – just like she imagined.

"By the way, as long as we're going to be traveling with one another, we might as well know each other's names," Kia suggested with a timid smile, sparing a glance towards the three aloof members of their tiny, lost group. Josefina blinked.

"You mean, you didn't name them?" Kia shrugged.

"Just one, two, three, four, and five…" Duo snorted, as if he were trying to hold in a laugh, but he managed to keep a straight face as he sent the two girls another dazzling smile. _Wow, that smile is almost always on_, Kia thought in a daze.

"Well, I'm Duo Maxwell. I may run, I may hide, but I never tell a lie!" Josefina rolled her eyes at the little statement, and probably would have said something had Kia not interrupted her at that moment.

"I'm Kia McCawley, and this is Josefina Ramirez."

The blonde smiled. "I'm Quatre Raberba Winner. Pleased to meet you formally." He gave a slight bow towards the two girls, and once again, Josefina was stopped from remarking about the boys' antics by one of the silent members of the group.

"Trowa Barton." Kia glanced over at him, but he had already finished speaking by them. She barely registered Wufei introducing himself, and Duo telling them that they could call him 'Wuffles', resulting in Wufei glaring murder towards the other boy.

This is too weird – all of this happened because of my drawing…? But I never drew a world or a forest…maybe Josefina and I are trapped within my sketchbook…? I thought this only happened in those silly B-rated movies Josefina watches…

Duo turned to the last member of the group. "C'mon. You can do it. Just open your mouth and work the vocal cords." The young man with the sharp blue eyes frowned at Duo with uncanny calmness, before giving a slight shrug of one shoulder.

"Heero Yuy."

"It's like pulling teeth sometimes."

Kia snapped out of her reverie, still avoiding eye contact with the one who called himself 'Heero'. "Okay, then. So, which way are we going?"

xxxx


End file.
